Digitized Book of the Week

April 2007 Archives

April 2, 2007

The Fresh Water Fishes

Through a special agreement with the Chicago Field Museum, we will be digitizing all the issues of the Museum's "Fieldiana" series in the areas of Zoology, Botany, Geology, and Anthropology. The Fresh-water Fishes of Mexico North of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Zoological Series, v. 5, 1904) was one of the first volumes to be completed. UIUC's Biology and Natural History Libraries own most of the issues in these two series, and those we don't have will be loaned to us by the Field Museum's library. As a result of our contributing this content to the Internet Archive, our library has been named a contributing member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://bhl.si.edu/), a group of ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions that is developing a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available through a global "biodiversity commons."

April 9, 2007

Peoria book of verse : published for The Peoria allied English interests (c1922)

Over the years, some books have entered the UIUC Library’s holdings from personal collections donated to the Library or purchased by it. Sometimes those books contain personal memorabilia—autographs, letters from the author, old book reviews, and the like. In the case of The Peoria Book of Verse, a previous owner glued to one of the end sheets a woman’s photograph and a short verse dedicated to “Deirdre.” Perhaps the serious fellow whose own photograph is glued into the inside front cover? And do check out the inside back cover as well at the above URL!

"Commy": the life story of Charles A. Comiskey, the "Grand old Roman" of baseball and for nineteen years president and owner of the American league baseball team "The White Sox," ([c1919])

Though rebuilt and renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003, to Chicago White Sox fans everywhere it will always be Comiskey Field. Here's the biography of the man who built it--Charles "Commy" Comiskey--former St. Louis Browns manager and first-baseman, and for nineteen years the owner of the Chicago White Socks. Filled with 18 great black and white photos, such as the one below taken on opening day of Comiskey Park in 1910. Don't miss this one, sports fans!

April 21, 2007

Prairie Farmer's directory of Champaign County : complete directory of the farmers of Champaign County, with valuable information about each farm; breeder's directory, giving full classified list of breeders of purebred livestock and poultry; business dir

The Prairie Farmer was a leading agricultural magazine and a champion of farmers’ rights founded by the Union Agricultural Society of Chicago. It supported the grange movement, and in 1873 created a department devoted to the grange. Besides articles on agriculture, horticulture, and stock raising, it provided general and market news, a children’s column, and departments dealing with health, household problems, and veterinary medicine. It also published a series called Prairie Farmer's Reliable Directory of Farmers and Breeders including this one for Champaign County from 1917. We'll be digitizing many of these directories for counties all over Illinois from the collection of the Illinois Historical Survey and Lincoln Room. These are great genealogy resources as they provide a complete listing of all members of a farmer's family and the exact location of their farm.

April 29, 2007

Glimpses of the World's fair. A selection of gems of the White City seen through a camera (c1893)

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago was one of many world fairs being held around the turn of the century that showcased technological and industrial advancements. The ferris wheel was among the amazing new inventions introduced to the world during the fair (so was shredded wheat cereal!). The ferris wheel, invented by George Ferris, was Chicago's response to the Eiffel Tower built for the International Exhibition of Paris in 1889. The site chosen for the fair was Jackson Park on Chicago’s south side; the fairgrounds came to be known as “the white city” because of the beautiful white marble used in the construction of the buildings, of which only the Fine Arts Building--now the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry--still stands. The photos in Glimpses of the World's Fair were taken with the newly introduced Kodak No. 4 box camera. We’ll be digitizing numerous books about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Look for this collection soon on the Illinois Harvest web portal.